


Next Avengers: Reversion

by AstralConfliction



Category: Champions (Comics), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Next Avengers, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Gen, Infinity Gauntlet, Marvel Cinematic Universe - Freeform, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), mcu - Freeform, young avengers - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2019-10-07 17:30:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17370329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstralConfliction/pseuds/AstralConfliction
Summary: The Avengers have failed. Thanos has collected all six Infinity Stones and successfully wiped out half of all life in the universe with their combined power. Among the erased was the entirety of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, leaving the planet defenseless and with no hope of reversing the Mad Titan's actions. Fifteen years after the population's decimation, Earth is in shambles. Villains reign with no heroes to stop them, citizens wage war on one another for their own survival, and Thanos now rests in seclusion, having succeeded in his lifelong mission. Though all hope seems lost however, out there somewhere, scattered among the survivors are eight adolescents who carry the legacy and responsibility of the fallen heroes on their shoulders. Eight adolescents that are our final chance at making things right. Eight that must become the next Avengers.





	1. Prologue

Thor Odinson stood at the center of the Wakandan jungle, shaking in absolute shock at what had just happened. He stared down at Stormbreaker, eyeing the indigo blood that coated its blade. Thanos had been right in his grasp, but the God of Thunder let revenge consume him in the moment rather than finishing off the Titan quickly, giving him the opportunity to use the stones and escape. From the foliage limped out Steve Rogers, holding his injured side and staring at Thor's unreadable expression.

"Where'd he go?" The captain asked in confusion. The god started to breathe heavy, ignoring his teammates question and instead just staring back at him. Rogers spun a full 360 degrees searching for some sign of the villainous alien but there was nothing. "Thor." Odinson still didn't speak. "Where'd he go?" Thor just continued to stare, unresponsive and terrified of what was to come.

"Steve?" The voice of the Captain's lifelong best friend Bucky Barnes made his head turn. Steve's eyes widened at the sight of his ally slowly dissolving. His legs went first, making him fall face first into the ground, disappearing entirely with a puff of dust. Rogers walked slowly to where his friend collapsed and ran his hand over the ground where Barnes' particles now rested. He turned back to Thor with the same expression that the Asgardian had given him earlier. Before Thor could even say something, Steve closed his eyes and turned to dust, blowing away with the wind, joining his best friend. Thor's eyes darted around before he caught notice of  a strange, uncomfortable sensation in his palm. His fingers had begun to break down and before he could yell in protest, the gust took the rest of him as well.

Meanwhile, Bruce Banner was still in the Hulkbuster Mark II digging the dirt off of a partly buried Natasha Romanoff. Just when he'd gotten all of it off and freed her, the agent of SHIELD disintegrated into the soil. "Nat?!" Banner dug at the ground some more as if he expected to find her hidden but to no avail. "Nat?!" Bruce shouted louder this time around, like he expected her to just return at the sound of his calling. That wasn't the case.

"Up, General! Up!" A dazed Okoye looked up at the voice to see it was her king extending a hand out to her. Thanos had knocked her back onto the ground where she must've went unconscious. "This is no place to die." Just when the Dora Milaje grabbed hold of King T'Challa's forearm, it began to dissipate. Okoye fell back on her bottom and watched in confusion as her friend turned to nothing. She stood onto her feet immediately and called out to him in their native language, but there was no response. The Black Panther was gone. Across the forest, an adolescent Groot was laying against a fallen tree trunk, beginning to disappear. He felt sickly, you could see it in his expression. Rocket stood adjacent to his companion and heard the tree-like hero's cry for help, trying to reach out for him. Before he could touch him, his best friend vanished. Groot was gone all over again. Before the anthropomorphic raccoon could even shed a tear, his fur began to flake off until all that was left was a pile of dust on the ground. Wanda sat elsewhere, weeping over Vision's artificial body when her own began to vanish as well. Having already lost her brother and now her lover, she didn't bother fighting it. What did she have to live for?

Sam Wilson's stomach churned and his body went numb. He groaned and tried his best to get off the jungle floor, but he couldn't muster the strength. He exhaled one last time before letting the wind carry what was left of him. "Sam? Sam?!" Rhodes called out to him, unaware that he was already gone. "Sam, where you at!?" Before Rhodey could search anymore, he also disintegrated and left the War Machine suit empty with no pilot, causing it to fall to the ground with a metallic thud. Okoye began to shiver and hyperventilate at the thought of what was happening. She tried to make sense of it all but just could not for the life of her.

Tony Stark coughed up a mouthful of blood onto Titan's rocky surface before taking Peter Parker's hand to stand back up onto his feet. Mantis, who had an injured Peter Quill's arm around her neck, stopped walking at the strange feeling she felt in her antennae. Nebula noticed and turned to face the Guardian of the Galaxy. "Something's happening..." Mantis' frail voice spoke softly before she dissipated, leaving Quill standing there alone and baffled at what they'd all just seen. Tony stared back just as surprised as Star-Lord until his eyes focused on the disappearing Drax and Nebula behind him. 

"He did it." Nebula whispered to herself, closing her eyes and accepting her fate. Drax watched until she was gone completely, then focusing on his forearms that were breaking down to nothing. A breeze carried what was left of him past Quill who was also starting to scatter into pieces. Peter Parker stood behind Tony watching Quill disperse in absolute horror. All of his new friends were evaporating and there wasn't a thing anyone could do about it. Tony heard Doctor Strange exhale harshly and when he looked back, saw the Sorcerer Supreme sat on the ground, already half gone. Before it reached his neck, Stephen spoke his last words of wisdom. 

"The children..." He faced away from them in preparation for his disappearance. Parker and Stark both turned to each other not knowing what those words meant, what they prophesied. Out of nowhere, a surge of nausea rushed through Stark, making him stumble and fall to the ground. Peter almost instinctively jumped to his mentor's side.

"Mister Stark? What's going on?" Tony didn't even have an answer for him. He could feel himself fading and rather than stall, he wanted to spend his last few moments wisely. "Peter..." Parker listened to Tony intently. Stark almost always referred to him as 'kid' so to hear him call him by his name was something that threw Peter off and made him slightly uneasy. "You're the best of all of us." Peter started shaking his head, realizing what he'd been hearing was a goodbye. Tony closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, feeling himself become nothing.

"Please don't go, Mister Stark. I don't— I can't lose you too." Peter's hands fell through Tony's disintegrating chest and into the pile of dust that remained. Scared and alone on an alien planet, Parker didn't know what to do besides hug his knees and sob. Just as he wiped his tears away, the throbbing sensation at the back of his neck began. It was that sense of his that warned of incoming harm or danger. He glanced around the barren wasteland but saw and heard nothing. Just the booming of thunder and the sight of storm clouds overhead filled his senses.  _What is it?_ He thought to himself. Peter glanced down at his feet when he realized they were vanishing, he was going like everyone else. It was his turn. He stood up fast, trying to escape something he couldn't but he ended up tripping since his feet were almost completely gone now. He tried standing back up, but the pain increased despite his superhuman body trying its best to fight off whatever process this was. There was no escaping it, so Peter just broke. Flooded with emotions, he cried until his form had been swept away entirely.

Thanos won and the Avengers lost. The Titan was finally content. He would now live the rest of his life fulfilled, farming on his now prosperous home planet thanks to the power of the stones. He'd leave his war-ridden past behind him and move on to more of a peaceful existence. The Alien's arm was now injured severely, the gauntlet melted into his hand and irremovable, but it was a battle scar he'd wear with pride from now on. It'd act as a reminder of his greatest accomplishment and the work it took to reach it. Filled with the sweet sensation of victory, Thanos stared out into the sunrise from his shack, immensely proud of what he'd done. He let his coarse skin bask in the sunlight and exhaled, a smirk overtaking his typically stern expression. According to him, he'd fixed the universe but if you asked anyone else, he tore it apart to an extent that was beyond repair. 

 

 


	2. Kate

Tokyo, 2031.

It was late at night, and the city's heavy rain was twinkling from the glow of the neon signs that lined the streetside. Pedestrians were sparse, likely due to how dangerous it was to wander the streets at this hour. After the Decimation of 2018, many organizations and individuals in power all over the world went silent. Most assumed that they were busy working towards a solution to fix what had been done, but after thirteen years of no progress, most people had lost hope and just accepted this new way of life. That left all of the major cities free to be overtaken by whichever villainous organization or gang wanted control over them. With the Avengers no longer present as well, the task was a lot easier than it would've been thirteen years ago. As a matter of fact, most of the well known A-list heroes had been wiped from existence, leaving just a few left, most of which were powerless. They did what they could to keep their areas safe, but they're only capable of so much.

Here in Tokyo, it was the Hand that ran the streets. The last of the ninja clan was thought to be destroyed in New York many years prior to the Decimation, but surviving leaders from around the globe managed to gather who was left for their eventual return. While most citizens would stay indoors past sunset, there were some who had no where to go and nobody to turn to. Some people were born into a post-Thanos world, having no choice but to adapt to what was left of society. One of them was sixteen year-old Kate Bishop who, at the moment, was hidden in an alleyway and huddled beside a dumpster so she wouldn't be bothered while she ate her meal for the night. From the way she was living now, no one would ever guess that Kate was born into a wealthy family with loving parents. Unfortunately just after her birth, Thanos' actions took the majority of her family from her, including her mother and father. From there, Kate hopped from family to family until eventually she found herself alone on the tokyo streets with no other options. Having finished her nightly noodles that she always stole from the joint down the block, Bishop tossed the empty box aside and stood back up. Typically she'd wait for the rain to clear a bit more before heading back to the abandoned warehouse she slept in, but it was unusually harder tonight and she didn't want to be stuck waiting any longer.

Kate flung her body up the alley's brick wall and grabbed the fire escape railing that was above her, swinging herself up higher until she reached the buildings ledge. After years of having to fend for herself, parkour was one of the many skills she'd mastered. Kate pulled herself up the ledge effortlessly and jumped to the next rooftop, not even bothering to look down. Her momentum grew as she jumped from building to building seamlessly until something caught her ear. She planted her feet and slid to a stop, removing the hood of her violet jacket and eyeing the street below. There it was again. The sound of a dog whimpering. The eyes behind her purple shades analyzed every nook and cranny below her until she spotted what looked like a yellow Labrador being restrained by a member of one of the local gangs. The man was cursing and shouting at the poor animal who was visibly in distress. Kate typically stood by the sidelines when trouble crossed her path, but the sound of that poor dog stuck with her and she just didn't have the heart to ignore it. Kate quietly slid down one of the slanted glass roofs nearby to get closer to ground level. She glanced downward, making sure she wasn't too high up for what she had planned next, otherwise it was going to hurt.

"Hey, asshole!" The teenage shout made the criminal look up at the sneakers that were heading straight for his face. The thug flew back into a chain link fence behind him, letting go of the dog's neck in the process. The yellow Lab whined and backed up from Kate, unsure if she'd harm him like the man did. Bishop extended an inviting hand out to the animal and clicked her tongue in an attempt to lure it back. "Hey little guy, what are you doing out here all alone?" The dog slowly crept closer to her, tilting his head into her hand. "Do you have a home? A family?" The dog just whined more and lowered his gaze. "Got a name?" Kate lifted his ragged collar and saw the golden name plate, reading it aloud. "Lucky, huh? That's a nice nam—"

Before she could finish her sentence, the crook stood back up and shouted in Japanese at the other men in the rundown building behind them. Kate held her arm out in front of Lucky so no harm would come his way and the other men ran out with knives, baseball bats, and brass knuckles. Kate had seen her fair share of brawls having lived on the streets for so long, but this was far above what she could manage. For the first time in a while, she was scared. She was genuinely worried for her life. But it was too late to run away now, and she wasn't about to leave the dog behind to get hurt or worse. She wiped her eyes of the rain that was still coming down fairly hard and put her fists up to her face. She was shaking with fear but she had to at least try to get out of this instead of submitting to these lowlifes. Two of the men ran at her with their weapons ready but before they got close enough to swing, a shuriken flew past their faces, slicing both of them across the face as well as shattering the street lamp that illuminated the alleyway, leaving them all in darkness.

"It's him." One of the men said in English, visibly shaking. The others told him to calm down, clutching their weapons tighter and readying themselves for whatever was to come. Several seconds of silence passed before it was broken by the shriek of one gang member, who was screaming at the large pointed blade that was shot into his forearm. Before anyone could do anything, the man was dragged into the darkness by the rope that had been tied to the projectile. Kate took this opportunity to grab Lucky and hide behind the clutter of trash cans nearby. One of the men had noticed however, and started to head for her when seemingly out of the abyss that was the night sky, an arrow was fired. This one cut right through the man's throat and out the back of his neck, making him choke on his own blood and fall back onto the wet concrete. 

The remaining men shouted in Japanese and eyed the area all around them for whoever was here with them. One of the crooks thought he heard something near a dumpster so he began to approach it slowly. When he reached it however, there was nobody there. Just some street rats that must've been the source of whatever he heard. But before he could walk off, the blade of a katana pierced his back and went out his abdomen. The man gritted his teeth in pain and struggled to stay standing. Blood gushing out from between his teeth, his body fell to the ground, lifeless. Behind where he was, stood a silhouette clad in black and gold armor. A hood and balaclava concealed the person's features but his build made it clear he was a male. He held a sword in one hand and a rope dart in the other. On his back was a black bow and a matching quiver. Before the other men could even react, the vigilante flung the rope dart into one man's throat and yanked it out with a spray of blood. The crook fell to the wet floor and bled to death, crimson liquid spreading into the rain water. The final gang member ran at the masked man shouting in Japanese. He began reaching for what seemed like a gun, but the hooded figure took notice of this and, in what seemed like less than a second, drew and shot an arrow into his enemy's forehead.

His body dropped almost immediately after, and the masked man's gaze was now fixed on Kate, who was crouched near the wall while clutching Lucky.  _Oh shit._ She thought to herself. The bowman put his weapons away and approached them slowly, making Lucky whine. A gloved hand reached out to the young girl and it made her jump back a bit in surprise. She took it and the man helped her back up. Kate was in the middle of thanking him when he interrupted her. "It's not safe out. Go home." He gave the dog a quick glance then walked away having nothing more to say. 

"You mean that shithole of a warehouse I sleep in? I'll pass. the bowman just ignored her, presumably because it was a problem that didn't concern him. "So... you got a name?" He still stayed silent, cleaning an arrowhead with his gloved finger tips. Before Kate fully turned her attention to Lucky, he finally had a response.

"Ronin." Kate gave the mystery man a thumbs up. "That's pretty badass." Her comment made him almost chuckle. Almost. "Do you have any students?" Ronin eyed the girl like she'd just asked something beyond absurd. "Y'know, like do you train people to learn what you learned?"Ronin slid the arrow he was done cleaning back into his quiver.

"Never have and never will. Attachment is just a distraction." He turned around and readied himself to climb up the building when Bishop called out to him.

"Can you teach me?" He shook his head hard. "Why not?" 

"You can take care of yourself, clearly. You made it this far and you'll make it farther." Kate scoffed at Ronin's positive and optimistic outlook.

"I'd be dead right now if it weren't for you. Please." Kate's eyes grew hopeful as she watched him walk back towards her. His face inched right in front of hers.

"No." Ronin stepped back and saluted her goodbye before pulling himself onto a dumpster.

"I don't want them to touch me again." Kate mumbled, her voice cracking.

Ronin paused and asked her to elaborate. "What the hell are you on about, kid?"

"Two weeks ago, I stole from the Demons, that one uptown gang." Ronin nodded at her words, listening on intently. "I was hungry, starving really. I had no choice but to take some to survive. I managed to fight off most of them, but they outnumbered me and..." At this point the bowman was sitting on the dumpster, legs dangling off. Kate's eyes closed and her breaths became raspy. "I don't want to go through that again, I don't want anyone to have to. I just want to know how to fight back." She sat on the flooded floor with her knees tucked into her chest. Lucky saw her tears even through the rain and licked off what he could, forcing a smile back onto Bishop's face and making her playfully nudge the dog away.

"Fine." Ronin slid off the dumpster and back onto his feet, walking back to Bishop and offering her a hand. "If we do this, it's my way, not yours. That gonna be a problem?" She shook her head fast. "You wanna know how to fight back? I'll show you." Kate took his hand and slid her purple shades back on. Lucky chased his tail in excitement and made both Kate and Ronin notice. "You can come sure, but you're sleeping outside." The bowman pointed a disciplinary finger at the dog.

"I'm Kate, by the way. Kate Bishop."

"Clint. Clint Barton." 


	3. Quantum Clairvoyance

_"Scott..."_

_"Scott!"_

A half-asleep Scott Lang shot up from the ground where he was laying with a gasp. When his eyes adjusted, he found that he was no longer back in the safety of where he fell asleep, but rather in the infinite depths of the Quantum Realm. He frantically tried pressing the button located on the index finger of his suit to enlarge himself but it had no effect. Before Lang could think of another means of escape, gravity forced him down a quantum tunnel, and his body tumbled through the obstructing atoms. Scott glanced at his hand through the crimson lenses of his helmet and discovered that it'd been phasing in and out of his suit. In fact, his whole body had been experiencing this, some form of molecular disequilibrium. One moment he was in the Ant-Man outfit, the next he was in the clothing he remembered falling asleep in. He tried flailing his arms out in front of him in an attempt to halt his movement, but he only continued to hurtle through the vortex, passing what resembled large shards of glass and colorful nebulae.

 _"What did you do!?"_ The demanding shout made Scott flinch and twist his body to face the direction that it came from. Within the void, behind a haze of subatomic particles, he saw flashes of what looked like the Avengers. Some faces were familiar to him, like Cap and Tony, but others were unrecognizable. It had all been moving so fast, he could hardly piece what had been happening. He couldn't even identify if these were visions of the past or of a potential future. Suddenly the void illuminated with an explosion of light and the blast of energy pushed the floating Scott back a couple feet. He shielded his eyes and squinted, trying his best not to be blinded by the wave of energy. When he opened them, his face was met with a breeze that was carrying what felt like sand brushing past his cheeks. A couple grains made it onto his lips but Scott spat them out into the air and tried to maneuver his body right-side up again. Before he managed to however, the gust of dust blew his body back further into the psychedelic background. Lang yelled as he flew through another vortex, but his voice was cut short when he fell face-first into what looked and felt like worn asphalt. He wheezed through the pain and finally managed a sentence to himself after the bizarre experience that past couple minutes had been.

"I have a feeling were not in Kansas anymore." Scott chuckled to himself before wheezing and clutching his side at the pain in his ribs. He pushed himself off the ground with the hand that had been free and gave his face a slow rub. "Where the heck...?" Analyzing his surroundings, he realized he'd been standing in the middle of what looked to be a completely deserted Manhattan. "Hello?!" Scott's voice reverberated further into the desolate city but nobody answered, at least nothing human. He jolted back at what sounded like an extra terrestrial battle cry. Out from the thick fog ahead, flew a horde of screeching alien creatures, each piloting some kind of weaponized chariot. Only at this moment did Scott realize what was unfolding before his eyes. This was the Battle of New York from fifteen years ago. From the front of their flying vehicles, fired purple beams of energy.One met the ground near Scott's foot and sent him flying back into yet another Quantum Vortex that he didn't even realize was behind him. Before he could even shout at the fact that he was falling once again, his body churned and contorted forcefully till it was facing an expansive space full of glowing particles that had morphed into stars. From within the void, a a small, blinking red light floated it's way towards Lang.

It was emitting from a small electronic device, one that seemed to be sending out a distress signal of some kind. Scott, out of curiosity, reached an arm out to grab the small gadget but before he could, a being encapsulated in flaming energy grabbed it first. It was a woman, glowing as if she were the living embodiment of a star. Her attire was an eye-catching combination of crimson and navy with some golden armor plating throughout. She'd definitely seen some conflict, that was apparent from the scuffs and scratches all over her uniform, especially on the large, gold star she donned on her chest. "Uh... hi?" The woman didn't respond to Scott, she just crumbled into pieces before his very eyes. The sudden gust that scattered her fragments also blew Scott through one last vortex, this one filled with various images of events that had yet to take place. Swarms of scarlet ninjas in the middle of a massacre, wreckage of what was once Avengers facility, and what looked to be Cassie, Scott's daughter, in the shrinking suit that she'd fashioned from what was left of his first suit. Behind her were seven other younger silhouettes, all pointing at the sky in the same direction. Scott's eyes followed their fingers till he was staring at a planet, one far too lush to be Earth. Scott turned back towards the group of teenagers to question what they were trying to tell him but they were already gone. Scott had been huffing at all of this confusion when a speeding meteor struck the ground just several feet from his position.

Strangely, the blast didn't knock him back, as if he was intangible. Scott peaked into the crater that formed from the impact to find a kid, no older than sixteen, nearly unconscious. He was wearing dark, form-fitting  armor that featured three glowing, circular orbs that formed somewhat of a triangle. On the boys head was a black helmet decorated with a large red star on the brow. "Kid, are you okay?" Scott rushed to his side but the child took no notice and got up on his own. He ran right past Scott and joined the other seven youths from before, who'd seemingly returned out of nowhere. The eight of them stood atop the body of a bloodied and beaten, plum-colored Alien wearing gleaming, gladiatorial armor. It was Thanos himself, seemingly defeated by a couple of... teenagers? The concept was certainly outlandish but there it was, right in front of Lang.

Cassie was among them, but she was the only one Scott could recognize. The ash that clouded the space behind the kids began to clear and when Scott squinted to see what was becoming visible, his heart almost stopped. Everyone stood there, a whole crowd of those that were decimated. The Avengers, earth's missing citizens, residents of other planets, and right behind Cassie, Hank, Luis, Janet, and Hope. Scott's vision grew blurry with the tears that were forming as he ran towards the love of his life and his family to hold them again. The crowd of the dusted parted however, and Scott lost Hope and the others in the movement. He wiped his eyes and ran further down the path they'd opened to find that he was now at the doorstep of the Avengers facility in upstate New York. Scott could see several people through the glass door, but not enough to make out who they may have been.  _"Dad?"_ Scott began to knock in an attempt to get the attention of those inside.  _"Dad!"_ He knocked harder this time, but they still hadn't noticed him outside. He was shouting for them now, his voice cracking from emotion.  _"Dad, wake up!"_ Still nothing. Scott was knocking as hard as he could now, and the glass of the door was beginning to crack.

_"DAD!"_

Scott shot up from the ground of the abandoned storefront the group decided to camp at and found Cassie crouched at his side, wearing her red Pym tech suit. Frank Castle, Luke Cage, and Tandy Bowen stood behind her, eyeing her seemingly delusional father. "I hate to wake you up but you were like, spazzing out. I got worried." Cassie extended a gloved hand for her father to grab and pulled him back onto his feet. "Luke saw Toomes, Poindexter, and a couple other scumbags while on patrol. They're on their way here. They found us." 

"The bastards are too much for just us to hold." Castle grunted and cocked his assault rifle, slinging it across the vest he'd painted a white skull onto. "We need to move." Tandy summoned one of her signature daggers composed of light and held it tight in her palm. Cassie's helmet shut over her soft face, making her resemble a metallic insect, similar to the suit her father was wearing.

"As much as I hate to admit it, Frank's right." Luke sighed and Frank scoffed at his words. "They've got the numbers, I say we just head further downtown. We could-"

"I know how to fix all of this." Scott blurted the words out and it made the entire team's attention shift to him. Cassie asked her dad what he meant, and by the look on the others' faces, they wanted to know too. "All of this. The dust, Thanos, everything. _I know how to get them back_."

 


End file.
